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John Hayes Fan

Life would be so much simpler without money.

Let's return to the barter system. How can there be a meltdown if I pay for my son's education in potatoes, and in turn get paid for my services as a freelance farmhand in French lessons?

No money changing hands, just good old fashioned trade, WITH A HUMAN FACE.

Think about it.

Stephen

A rambling article with no point, and if there was a point, "a Cabinet minister to financial stability is no guarantee of financial stability, but it would help".

Please, are the Treasury, the boardmembers of the BoE, the FSA, not enough?

How about a Cabinet minister for the prevention of the teenage violence we see on our streets, it is no guarantee, but it would help.

How about a Cabinet minister for clean air, it is no guarantee of cleaner air, but it would help.

Creating new posts doesn't solve any problems.

It almost reminds me of the England football team, so much clamour and excitement to choose a new manager: "Oooh Mourinho, ooh Capello, ooh Martin O'Neill, oooh Alan Shearer", but absolutely no desire to discuss the tactics or (policies in the extended metaphor) that led to defeat.

James Sproule

Let’s have a minister for poverty, so we can feel we are solving that problem as well. Then we can have a minister for schools, children, playgroups and general well being. That way, people can realise we care about such matters and feel that something is being done. Even if nothing actually gets done, what matters is the appearance of action – well, that seems to be politics as put foreword by Labour.

Financial stability is the responsibility of the chancellor. Stability is delivered through fiscal prudence, it is imperilled through wasteful spending and over regulation. No minister short of the Chancellor would ever be able to have influence over such forces.

William Norton

The proposal to split up the Treasury was daft in July and it is still daft now. It's a very Harold Wilson idea.

Peter's perceptive suggestion of having financial stability as a ministerial objective is so radical that New Labour have already adopted it. From the HMT Aims & Objectives webpage:
Objective I:
Maintain a stable macroeconomic environment with low inflation and sound public finances in accordance with the Code for Fiscal Stability.
Objective III:
Promote efficient, stable and fair financial markets, for their users and the economy.
Objective V:
Promote UK economic prospects by pursuing increased productivity and efficiency in the EU, international financial stability and increased global prosperity, especially protecting the most vulnerable."

Whether they're actually achieving any of this tedious mission statement drivel is another matter, but the spirit seems to be willing however weak the flesh. And as for a single Cabinet Minister responsible for delivering this, once again New Labour are ahead of the Franklinite curve. He's called the Chancellor of the Exchequer. (Expenditure goes to the Chief Secretary and tax raising falls to the Financial Secretary, who isn't in the Cabinet.)

Tony Makara

As much as we libertarians would like to see a laissez-faire economic policy, we have to accept that the state does have to keep a watchful eye over individual financial actions in the best interests of the wider economy. The sub-prime crisis in the states and the wanton borrowing encouraged here by the Labour government have created severe economic problems. Cashflow is the blood circulation of our economy and when that flow is interupted it effects us all. Labour have encouraged borrowing and consumer spending to create an unsustainable growth, this in itself is dangerous because it is an inflationary policy. We currently don't see that inflation in consumer goods because it is hidden by the strength of the pound and the fact that Labour changed the measurement for inflation, but it is there as the housing market proves. The future Conservative government must totally discourage the easy borrowing culture that Labour has promoted and instead return our nation to sensible borrowing with the emphasis on supporting the supply-side of our economy.

Geordie-Tory

How about? The Chancellor of the Exchequer!

MHDH

James Sproule. Spot on. A ridiculous article.

DavisFan

"John Hayes Fan" seems to have some EXCELLENT ideas.

That is the kind of innovative thinking this party desperately needs.

I have never met him, but he certainly seems a welcome addition to the fold, and far better than "Grayling4Leader".

SOUND.

John Hayes Fan

Thanks Davis Fan.

The cave people got on just fine without money. Why can't we?

DavisFan

John Hayes Fan is absolutely right.

All these people whinge about a currency which is not attached to the gold standard.

I say - let's not just go back to the gold standard.

let's go back to the pelt standard.

John Hayes Fan

REAL solutions, for REAL problems.

Are you listening, Mr David Cameron?

DavisFan

He won't listen, John Hayes Fan.

He's too busy knitting yoghurt and swigging muesli and playing the wall game with his mincing metrosexual friends on Piccadilly Circus in London town.

Unimpressed

Franklin's articles are becoming more and more silly. The Editor should replace the self-important scribbler. It just proves that you don't have to be intelligent to work at CCHQ or advise Shadow Ministers.

Brian W

How about a Chancellor of the Exchequer that REALLY understands economics and money

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